Gyöngyös (; german: Gengeß) is a town in

Heves Heves is a small town in eastern Hungary. About 100 km east of Budapest, Heves lies at the northern extreme of the Great Hungarian Plain, just south of the Mátra and Bükk hills and west of the Tisza River. Heves gave its name to the Heves ...

county in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

, east of

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

. Situated at the foot of the Sár-hegy and

Mátra The Mátra ( sk, Matra) is a mountain range in northern Hungary, between the towns Gyöngyös and Eger. The country's highest peak, Kékestető (1014 m), belongs to this mountain range. The Mátra is part of the North Hungarian Mountains ...

mountains, it is the home of numerous food production plants, including milk production and sausage factories. It is also the home of many

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...

s on the slopes of the Sárhegy. The Art-Nouveau and Baroque buildings around the main square were reconstructed after a disastrous fire started in the local hospital in 1917, destroying a number of buildings housing important Jewish institutions and leaving in all around 8,000 homeless.

Name

The meaning of the town's name is "Made of

Pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...

s"; Croats from Hungary call this city ''Đunđuš'' . The 16/17th-century historian

Miklós Istvánffy Baron Miklós Istvánffy de Baranyavár et Kisasszonyfalva ( la, Nicolaus Istuanfius; 8 December 1538 – 1 April 1615) was a Hungarian politician, Humanist historian and poet, who served as Palatinal Governor of Hungary ( hu, nádori helytartó) ...

wrote that the name of the town comes from the Hungarian word for

mistletoe Mistletoe is the common name for obligate hemiparasitic plants in the order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they extract water and nutrients from the host plant. ...

(''fagyöngy'' literally "wood-pearl"), which is abundant in the local woods.

History

Gyöngyös was home to a large Jewish community before World War II. In 1942, anti-Jewish laws were adopted in the province, affecting the Jews of the town. Following the occupation of Hungary by the German army in March 1944, 1800 Jews were locked in a

ghetto A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...

. Some were saved by Hungarian

Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sav ...

personnel but most of them were deported to

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

where they were murdered.

Sights to visit

There are many monuments and places of interest in the town, such as the Orczy mansion, home of the Mátra Museum, Saint Bartholomew's Church (

Saint Bartholomew Church, Gyöngyös, Hungary Saint Bartholomew Church ( hu, Szent Bertalan Nagytemplom) is in the center of Gyöngyös (northern Hungary) and was built in the 14th century. The locals call it the "Big Church" ( hu, Nagytemplom) because it is the town and its vicinity's b ...

) in the center of town, and its Treasury.

Notable residents

* Gyöngyi Horváth, sociologist, conference organiser * Rudolph Ritter von Brudermann (1851–1941), general of

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

* Béla Kerékjártó (1898–1946), mathematician * Sandor Kenyeres (born 1949), property developer, scientific philanthropist, and cultural visionary *

Gedeon Richter Gedeon Richter (23 September 1872 – 30 December 1944) was a Hungarian pharmacist, founder of Gedeon Richter plc and a pioneer of the modern Hungarian pharmaceutical industry. Life Richter was born to a Jewish family in Ecséd, Hungary, ...

(1872–1944), pharmacist, business magnate, philanthropist, founder of

Gedeon Richter plc Gedeon Richter Plc. is a Hungarian multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company headquartered in Budapest, Hungary. It is one of the largest companies of the industry in the Central and Eastern European region and has operations in ov ...

, pioneer of the Hungarian pharmaceutical industry *

Soma Visontai Soma Visontai (1854–1925) was Hungarian lawyer and deputy. Visontai was born in Gyöngyös on 9 November 1854 as Soma Weinberger, the son of Albert Weinberger and Julianna Schweitzer. He was educated at Budapest, where he changed his name in 18 ...

(1854–?), lawyer, deputy * Paul Vay de Vaya (1735–1800), Major General (1794), Feldmarschall-leutnant (1799–1800) *

Margit Gréczi Margit Gréczi (born 13 December 1941 in Gyöngyös) is a Hungarian painter. Career She began to show interest in painting in her early childhood. Her art teacher, Gyuláné Békési at the Gyöngyösi Elementary School, spotted her talent a ...

(born 1941), painter *

Zita Pataki Zita Pataki (born 1 November, 1973 in Gyöngyös) is a Hungarian television presenter, best known as the host of Class FM and is a meteorological news reporter on RTL Klub RTL (formerly: RTL Klub) is a Hungarian free-to-air television channe ...

(born 1973), weather presenter

Politics

Gábor Vona Gábor Vona (born Gábor Zázrivecz; 20 August 1978) is a Hungarian historian, teacher and former nationalist politician who led the political party Jobbik from 2006 until 2018. He was the party's candidate for the position of prime minister i ...

(born 1978), politician, leader of the political party

Jobbik The Movement for a Better Hungary ( hu, Jobbik Magyarországért Mozgalom), commonly known as Jobbik (), is a conservative political party in Hungary. Originating with radical and nationalist roots, at its beginnings, the party described itself ...

* Gábor Fodor (born 1962), jurist, politician, leader of the

Hungarian Liberal Party Hungarian Liberal Party ( hu, Magyar Liberális Párt, shortened form Liberals (''Liberálisok'') or MLP) is a liberal political party in Hungary that was formed on 27 April 2013 and is led by Anett Bősz. History Foundation Gábor Fodor announ ...

Pál Almásy Pál Almásy de Zsadány et Törökszentmiklós (1818 – 1 November 1882) was a Hungarian lawyer and politician, who served as Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1849. Career After studying law he became a lawyer in 1838. He part ...

(1818–1882), lawyer, politician, Speaker of the House of Representatives (1849) * Károly Kamermayer (1829–1897), jurist, councillor, the first mayor of Budapest (1873–1896) *

József Balázs József Balázs (born 9 May 1984 in Orosháza) is a retired Hungarian football player. ReferencesHLSZ * 1984 births Living people People from Orosháza Hungarian footballers Association football forwards Mezőkovácsháza TE players ...

(born 1965), politician * Gabor Horváth, (born 1963) brigadier general, army carrier officer, promoter of NATO and EU membership, commander

Sports

* Viktor Szabó (born 1986), footballer *

Dárius Csillag Dárius Csillag (born 29 January 1995) is a Hungarian professional footballer who plays for Budaörs Budaörs (; german: Wudersch; hr, Jerša, or ; la, Vicus Teuto) is a town in Pest County, Budapest metropolitan area, Hungary. Location ...

(born 1995), footballer *

Dávid Ficsór Dávid Ficsór (born 4 October 1986) is a Hungarian professional footballer who plays for Mezőkövesd Mezőkövesd is a town in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén county, Northern Hungary. It lies from Miskolc and from Eger. History The area has bee ...

(born 1986), footballer *

Gergő Gohér Gergő Gohér (born 16 June 1987) is a Hungarian footballer who plays for Szolnok. Club career In July 2021, Gohér returned to Szolnok. Club statistics ''Updated to games played as of 30 June 2020.'' Club honours ;Szolnoki MÁV FC *Hunga ...

(born 1987), footballer *

András Herczeg András Herczeg (born 11 July 1956) is a Hungarian football manager and former player, who is currently the manager of Debreceni VSC. He worked as the manager of the Debreceni VSC between 2007 and 2010. He led his team to the groups stages of th ...

(born 1956), football manager, former player, manager of Debreceni VSC * Zsófia Kovács (born 1988), professional triathlete * József Éles (born 1969), former handball player, handball coach of the Dominican Republic women's national team * Attila Szekrényessy (1913–1995),

pair skater Pair skating is a figure skating discipline defined by the International Skating Union (ISU) as "the skating of two persons in unison who perform their movements in such harmony with each other as to give the impression of genuine Pair Skating a ...

Gabriella Csépe Gabriella Csépe (born June 13, 1973 in Gyöngyös) is a former breaststroke swimmer from Hungary, who competed in two consecutive Summer Olympics for her native country, starting at the 1988. Her best Olympic results came in 1992, when she f ...

(born 1973), swimmer *

László Polgár László Polgár (born 11 May 1946) is a Hungarian chess teacher and educational psychologist. He is the father of the famous Polgár sisters: Zsuzsa, Zsófia, and Judit, whom he raised to be chess prodigies, with Judit and Zsuzsa becoming ...

(born 1946), educational psychologist and developer of educational method to develop "stars" (whom he calls "geniuses"). He and his wife Klára used his method to develop daughters Zsuzsa

Susan Polgár Susan is a feminine given name, from Persian "Susan" (lily flower), from Egyptian '' sšn'' and Coptic ''shoshen'' meaning "lotus flower", from Hebrew ''Shoshana'' meaning "lily" (in modern Hebrew this also means "rose" and a flower in general), ...

, Zsófi Sofia Polgár and

Judit Polgár Judit Polgár (born 23 July 1976) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster, generally considered the strongest female chess player of all time. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, at the time the yo ...

into the world's leading chess players, Olympic champions. His paternal grandfather in yöngyös was a great Talmudic scholar. * Energia SC Gyöngyös (1992–present), football club

Twin towns – sister cities

Gyöngyös is twinned with: *

Luohe Luohe (; postal: Loho) is a prefecture-level city in central Henan province, China. It is surrounded by the cities of Xuchang, Zhoukou, Zhumadian and Pingdingshan on its north, east, south and west respectively. Its population was 2,367,490 inha ...

, China *

Manisa Manisa (), historically known as Magnesia, is a city in Turkey's Aegean Region and the administrative seat of Manisa Province. Modern Manisa is a booming center of industry and services, advantaged by its closeness to the international port cit ...

, Turkey *

Pieksämäki Pieksämäki () is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the Southern Savonia region, about north of Mikkeli, east of Jyväskylä and south of Kuopio. The town has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The ...

, Finland *

Ringsted Ringsted is a city located centrally in the Danish island of Zealand. It is the seat of a municipality of the same name. Ringsted is situated approximately 60 km from Copenhagen. Tourism and transport Ringsted is one of Denmark's busiest ...

, Denmark *

Sanok Sanok (in full the Royal Free City of Sanok — pl, Królewskie Wolne Miasto Sanok, rue, Санок, ''Sanok'', ua, Cянік, ''Sianik'', la, Sanocum, yi, סאניק, ''Sonik'') is a town in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship of south-eastern ...

, Poland *

Štip Štip ( mk, Штип ) is the largest urban agglomeration in the eastern part of North Macedonia, serving as the economic, industrial, entertainment and educational focal point for the surrounding municipalities. As of the 2002 census, the city ...

, North Macedonia *

Târgu Secuiesc Târgu Secuiesc (; hu, Kézdivásárhely, ; german: Szekler Neumarkt; la, Neoforum Siculorum) is a city in Covasna County, Transylvania, Romania. It administers one village, Lunga (''Nyujtód''). History The town was first mentioned in 1407 a ...

, Romania *

Zeltweg Zeltweg is a town in Styria, Austria. It is located in the Aichfeld basin of the Mur River in Upper Styria. Larger municipalities in the vicinity are Judenburg, Knittelfeld and Fohnsdorf. History Some farms were recorded at Zeltweg in the Duchy ...

, Austria *

Shusha / hy, Շուշի , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = ShushaCollection2021.jpg , image_caption = Landmarks of Shusha, from top left:Ghazanchetsots Cathedral • Yukhari Govhar ...

, Azerbaijan

Gallery

File:Víztorony - Gyöngyös.jpg, Aerial photograph of the water tower, built in 1927.

References

External links

* . * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gyoengyoes Populated places in Heves County Orczy family